Athanasius [1] (died 898) was the Bishop (as Athanasius II) and Duke of Naples [2] from 878 to his death. He was the son of Gregory III and brother of Sergius II, whom he blinded and deposed in order to seize the throne while he was already bishop.
In this usurpation, Athanasius was originally supported (financially) by Pope John VIII, who desired to break the Neapolitan friendship with the Saracens. [3]
In 879, John excommunicated Athanasius, for the latter had not yet broken with the Moslems. [4] He was instead involving himself in the wars over the throne of Capua. He assisted Atenulf against his brothers and cousins. With Byzantine troops, he besieged Capua itself. From about 881, he himself ruled Capua, technically a vassal of Prince Guaimar I of Salerno. He and Guaimar fought an indecisive war while the latter was preoccupied with the Saracen menace Athanasius was ignoring. In 886, Athanasius, since released from excommunication, was allied with the Saracens again and received a threat from Pope Stephen V of a blockade of Naples.
By 887, Atenulf was installed in Capua as count. In 888, Athanasius and Atenulf disputed the region of "Liburnia" and went to war. They fought an indecisive battle at S. Carzio on the Clanio.
In 895, Athanasius fomented a revolt of the Neapolitan populace in the city of Salerno. However, Guaimar's young son, Guaimar II, put it down.
Domestically, Athanasius increased the power and prestige of Naples. He was a hellenophile who worked to preserve many Greek manuscripts and maintain good relations with Byzantium. He had a daughter, Gemma, who married Landulf I of Benevento, son of his former ally Atenulf. He was succeeded as duke by his nephew Gregory IV and as bishop by his brother Stephen.
The Duchy of Benevento was the southernmost Lombard duchy in the Italian Peninsula that was centred on Benevento, a city in Southern Italy. Lombard dukes ruled Benevento from 571 to 1077, when it was conquered by the Normans for four years before it was given to the Pope. Being cut off from the rest of the Lombard possessions by the papal Duchy of Rome, Benevento was practically independent from the start. Only during the reigns of Grimoald and the kings from Liutprand on was the duchy closely tied to the Kingdom of the Lombards. After the fall of the kingdom in 774, the duchy became the sole Lombard territory which continued to exist as a rump state, maintaining its de facto independence for nearly 300 years, although it was divided after 849. Benevento dwindled in size in the early 11th century, and was completely captured by the Norman Robert Guiscard in 1053.
Pandulf I Ironhead was the Prince of Benevento and Capua from 943 until his death. He was made Duke of Spoleto and Camerino in 967 and succeeded as Prince of Salerno in 977 or 978. He was an important nobleman in the fight with the Byzantines and Saracens for control of the Mezzogiorno in the centuries after the collapse of Lombard and Carolingian authority on the Italian Peninsula. He established himself over almost the whole of the southern half of Italia before his death in March 981. He was an ancestor of Sancho I.
Pandulf IV was the Prince of Capua on three separate occasions.
The Duchy of Gaeta was an early medieval state centered on the coastal South Italian city of Gaeta. It began in the early ninth century as the local community began to grow autonomous as Byzantine power lagged in the Mediterranean and the peninsula due to Lombard and Saracen incursions.
The Duchy of Naples began as a Byzantine province that was constituted in the seventh century, in the reduced coastal lands that the Lombards had not conquered during their invasion of Italy in the sixth century. It was governed by a military commander (dux), and rapidly became a de facto independent state, lasting more than five centuries during the Early and High Middle Ages. Naples remains a significant metropolitan city in present-day Italy.
Richard Drengot was the count of Aversa (1049–1078), prince of Capua and duke of Gaeta (1064–1078).
Atenulf I, called the Great, was the prince of Capua from 7 January 887 and of Benevento from 899, when he conquered that principality. He also used the title princeps gentis Langobardorum: "prince of the Lombard people," an echo of the title used by the earliest prince of Benevento following the collapse of Lombard cohesion in 774.
Guaimar I was the prince of Salerno from 880, when his father entered the monastery of Monte Cassino in August. His parents were Prince Guaifer and Landelaica, daughter of Lando I of Capua. From 877, he was associated with his father on the throne, a practice which had begun with the previous dynasty and continued until the end of Salernitan independence in 1078.
Guaimar II was the Lombard prince of Salerno from 901, when his father retired to a monastery, to his death. His father was Guaimar I and his mother was Itta. He was associated with his father in the principality from 893. He was responsible for the rise of the principality: he restored the princely palace, built the palace church of San Pietro a campanile, and restored gold coinage.
Landulf I, sometimes called Antipater, was a Lombard nobleman and the Prince of Benevento and of Capua from 12 January 901, when his father, Atenulf I, prince of Capua and conqueror of Benevento, associated his with him in power.
Landulf II, called the Red, was the Lombard prince of Benevento and prince of Capua from 939 or 940, when his father, Landulf I, first associated him with the government. His mother was Gemma, daughter of Athanasius of Naples. He may have been associated as early as 933, when his elder brother, Atenulf III, was made co-regent. His uncle Atenulf II died in 940 and it is likely that Landulf served as a replacement. Landulf married Yvantia on an unknown date.
Alberic I was the Lombard Duke of Spoleto from between 896 and 900 until 920, 922, or thereabouts. He was also Margrave of Camerino, and the son-in-law of Theophylact I, Count of Tusculum, the most powerful man in Rome.
Gregory IV was the firstborn son of Duke Sergius II of Naples and successor of his paternal uncle, Bishop Athanasius, in 898, when he was elected dux, or magister militum, unanimously by the aristocracy. His other paternal uncle, Stephen, succeeded Athanasius as bishop. According to the Chronicon ducum et principum Beneventi, Salerni, et Capuae et ducum Neapolis, he reigned for sixteen years and eight months.
Lando III was the count of Capua for two years and ten months from 882 to his death. He was a son of Landenulf, gastald of Teano, and grandson of Landulf I of Capua.
Sergius I was the first duke of Naples of his dynasty, often dubbed the "Sergi," which ruled over Naples for almost three centuries from his accession in 840 until the death of his namesake Sergius VII in 1137.
The Principality of Salerno was a medieval Southern Italian state, formed in 851 out of the Principality of Benevento after a decade-long civil war. It was centred on the port city of Salerno. Although it owed allegiance at its foundation to the Carolingian emperor, it was de facto independent throughout its history and alternated its allegiance between the Carolingians and their successors in the West and the Byzantine emperors in the east.
The Principality of Capua was a Lombard state centred on Capua in Southern Italy. Towards the end of the 10th century the Principality reached its apogee, occupying most of the Terra di Lavoro area. It was originally a gastaldate, then a county, within the principality of Salerno.
Pandenulf was the Count of Capua, claiming that title from 862 and holding it successfully during the tumultuous civil war of 879 – 882. He was the son and successor of Pando, but was removed on his father's death by his uncle the bishop, Landulf II.
The Norman conquest of southern Italy lasted from 999 to 1194, involving many battles and independent conquerors.
Peter I was the bishop of Benevento from 887 or 894 until at least 902. His pontificate was marked by rapid political shifts, with Benevento successively under Byzantine (891–895), Spoletan (895–897) and Lombard rule. Peter was imprisoned and exiled a first time in 895. He served as the regent and de facto ruler of the Principality of Benevento between 897 and 900. In 902, he was proclaimed prince by the people but refused the office and went into exile a second time. He died in 914, possibly still in exile. He was buried in Benevento
